A whole lot has changed since the days of Pearl Harbor
· UPIDec. 10 (UPI) -- Sunday marked the 84th anniversary of Japan's dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor. Only a handful of survivors are left. And very few Americans were alive then. Hence, Pearl Harbor as past wars and battles, is passing into the distant mists of time.
What is interesting is that a surprising number of visitors to Pearl Harbor memorial for the USS Arizona, in which an admiral, Isaac Kidd, and 1,177 of his shipmates perished, are Japanese.
That suggests how much times have changed. Japan is now a close and trusted ally. So is Germany. And American allies in that war are now on opposite sides: China and Russia.
One wonders what conditions will be like 84 years from now in 2109. Not even Hollywood or Netflix could come close in its movies portraying that future. But let's compare December 1941 and December 2025 to show what has changed.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. FDR was considered the most powerful president at that point with his New Deal legislation and attempts to pack the Supreme court. Democrats held 267 out of 435 House seats and 66 out of 96 seats in the Senate. The war in Europe had consumed FDR as he used every means to support Great Britain that stood alone against the Hitlerian juggernaut.
The economy was finally emerging from the Depression. In 2025 dollars, the U.S. gross domestic product was about $2.8 trillion and the debt about $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.
The population was about 133 million. Disparities between rich and poor, measured by the GINI coefficient, was 42%, That means moderate to high inequality.
The literacy rate was 96%. Life expectancy was 64, two years after Social Security kicked in.
Television was in its infancy. Radio and the movies were in their prime. Aviation was still in its early stages. Jet engines and nuclear weapons had not been invented and intercontinental travel was limited. Penicillin was rare, as were antibiotics, and chemotherapy had not been invented. Eighty-eight percent of American families owned cars and only a handful had passports.
Today, Donald Trump has amassed power far beyond what FDR could have imagined. The Supreme Court seems determined to expand that power, too. Congress however is only marginally in the hands of Republicans. In the Senate it is 53-47 (with two Independents caucusing with the Democrats). In the House, the Republicans have a 219-213 majority with three empty seats.
Instead of regarding Europe as a close ally, the Trump administration has been dismissive accusing Europeans of becoming "non-European" in demographic content. While FDR passed Lend Lease to come to Britain's defense, Trump now wants Europe to assume a far greater burden in protecting its national security and aiding war torn Ukraine.
U.S. focus has shifted to the Indo-Pacific region, and China has been designated the top U.S, defense priority, if not the "pacing" threat Not only jet engines are in service. Rockets blast into deep space as one means of delivering thermonuclear weapons on an enemy.
In 2025, the U.S. GDP is $29 trillion and its national debt is approaching $40 trillion. The population had almost tripled to 340 million. Life expectancy is more than 78 years, 16 years after Social Security payments could be received. But literacy collapsed to about 79%, and the disparities between between rich and poor, measured by the GINI coefficient, is about the same.
Medical procedures deemed miraculous in 1941, such as treatments for cancer and transplants for vital organs, are routine in 2025. Ninety-one percent of Americans own cars.
Where moods were concerned, most Americans had not recovered yet from a decade of Depression. The world scene was also grim. The Spanish Civil War had ended. Hitler had occupied Europe. And Americans were divided about being drawn into a second world war. Pearl Harbor changed that.
American anger at the surprise attack unified the nation. The military would expand from several hundred thousand to 11 million. Defense production brought women into the workforce. The fact is that Pearl Harbor rejuvenated America and Americans.
Today, not less than three-fifths and as many as three-fourths of Americans believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. Government credibility is non-existent. And politics have become, by any measure, nastily uncivil and perhaps never so divided since the Civil War.
The question is what dramatic event could have the chastening effect of Pearl Harbor, if any? Answering that question may be impossible. And extending the changes from 1941 to 2025 to 2109 does not seem to present a happy picture. Perhaps Hollywood can do better.
Harlan Ullman is UPI's Arnaud de Borchgrave Distinguished Columnist; senior adviser at Washington's Atlantic Council, chairman of a private company, and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. His next book, co-written with Field Marshal The Lord David Richards, former U.K. chief of defense and due out next year, is Who Thinks Best Wins: Preventing Strategic Catastrophe. The writer can be reached on X @harlankullman.